The Watergate Hotel in Washington said it has been sanitised after someone dumped insects and worms on a dining table and floor on Tuesday, during Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s overnight stay there.
A viral video filmed inside the hotel shows mealworms covering a white-clothed dining table in what appears to be a conference room prominently featuring an Israeli flag. Another scene shows crickets on a hallway floor and a fire alarm going off.
The mealworm video was shared online by the Palestinian Youth Movement and its DC, Maryland and Virginia chapter, which have protested Netanyahu’s visit over Israel’s ongoing war in Gaza.
The disturbance inside the five-star hotel came ahead of Netanyahu’s controversial speech on Wednesday before Congress.
A spokesperson for the hotel told HuffPost that it’s aware of the video circulating online and said that authorities are handling the “unfortunate incident.”
“We took the necessary steps to ensure the property has been sanitised and is now operating as normal,” they said.
DC’s Metropolitan Police Department referred questions to the US Secret Service, which told HuffPost that there was never any danger to anyone the agency is tasked with protecting, such as foreign heads of state.
A Secret Service spokesperson added that the conference room where the bugs were dumped was not part of the agency’s agreed-upon security plan with the Israeli security services and its local partners.